The invention relates generally to image processing, and more particularly, to methods of processing mosaicked images.
Nowadays, digital cameras are almost ubiquitous. There are not only stand-along digital cameras, but also digital cameras embedded in various kinds of electronic devices, such as smart phones and tablet computers. Even more, digital video cameras may also be regarded as digital cameras.
Generally speaking, a digital camera at least has a color sensor and a color filter array (CFA) overlaid on the color sensor. To name a few examples, the color sensor may be a charge coupled device (CCD) sensor or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor; the CFA may be a Bayer CFA, an RGBC CFA, or a CYYM CFA.
A raw image generated by the digital camera is a mosaicked one, with pixels of different colors alternating on each horizontal line of pixels and on each vertical line of pixels. To be useful, the mosaicked image frequently needs to be processed. Some image processing method may ensure better image quality at the cost of more complex computation. Other image processing method may have simpler computation but may lead to inferior image quality.